New manager syndrome hits not so Hot Spurs

Reading social media has frustrated me today as some fans were saying we were awful, but I am sorry, that was simply not the case this evening.
This was never going to be an easy game against a side galvanised by the arrival of a new manager who don't exactly make it easy for teams to play against them, and why should they?

In the first half, we dominated possession but Palace were solid, very tight and pressing every ball as well as having nine men behind the ball on every Spurs attack.
Eriksen missed an open goal and although the ball was slightly behind him, a player of his calibre should have put the ball in the back of the empty net.

Blind alleys

Townsend has been begging to play every game in recent weeks but if he plays like he did today when he was given his chance, he won't be starting too many more games this season. When on the right, his control was poor and he gave the ball away on nearly every occasion he touched the ball. When he finally moved to the left hand side, he kept cutting in on his weaker right foot and failed to deliver any decent cross of note.
Lennon has his failings but Townsend is just not up to the job any more.

Chadli growing

Chadli struggled today but his effort was to be admired. He moved from flank to flank and tried to get Spurs moving but Palace suffocated him out of the game as it went on.
Chadli is quickly coming a very important player for Spurs and I think he will go on to be a fan favourite in the coming seasons.

Strength in depth

In my last post on this very site, you will have noted that I talked about how Spurs need strength in depth and I think that is what today showed. I don't think many of us would have thought that we would be missing Bentaleb but today both he and Mason were sorely missed. Dembele tries to take too many players on and when he did the simple things he looked much better. What I talked about was the need for the players coming in when we have injuries to be of the highest quality and today I feel that our replacements were lacking. Stambouli on the ball looks confident and has some skill, but off the ball he looks sluggish and needs to work much harder. Bentaleb and Mason have shown the ability to work hard and get Spurs moving forwards and we really missed that today.

Kane - ing the opposition

If ever anyone had any lingering doubts about just how good Harry Kane really is, I think he has put them to bed. His goal was again a great finish but it is his all round play that continues to impress me. He is hard to get off the ball and he has developed a good turn of pace. We have been hollering for a 20 plus a season striker for years and we now have it. What is needed now is someone to complement him and for me, Benteke has to be that man. Benteke and Kane together could frighten the very best defences in Europe let alone the Premier league and I would love to see Spurs do all they can to make this happen.

Not great but not poor

I am a pessimistic Spurs fan most of the time but I simply do not accept that we were that bad today. The opposition were determined and hard working and once we took the lead, I thought we would go on to win comfortably, but the penalty was an appalling decision and the more I see it, the more I see a brilliant challenge and a poor refereeing decision. The winner was poor with Eriksen giving the ball away and Walker far too easily muscled off the ball.
Today was not pretty and it was a frustrating result in a game we should have won, but we have played much worse than today and still taken three points home with us.

Quantity needs quality

When it comes to strength in depth, Spurs have plenty of depth, but the strength is lacking. I would like to see the likes of Dembele, Paulinho, Capoue moved on and the likes of Benteke and Delph brought in. Zaha wouldn't be a bad option either. He and Chadli could work very well together and I am sorry but Townsend has to go. He is a Championship player at best and today was absolutely terrible.

Tough Times

We are now going to be tested severely as we head in to a period of games that will come thick and fast and we will see our season made or completely broken. If you had told me at the start of this season that we would be in the semi finals of the league cup, still in Europe and very much in the race for the top four, I would have taken it. I would still take it and believe we can achieve it and maybe even better but we MUST do business in this window or come May, we will be left with nothing, a feeling we have had to endure for too long under ENIC.

Let's move on and as ever, COME ON YOU SPURS!!!!

 

Think Poch is doing a good job at the mo with the tools he has, but does he have the gumption to knock on Levys door and demand a few fresh faces this month ? I hope so, but sometimes a team like us can find the unexpected answer in a Benteleb and a Mason to the conundrum that is Spurs, and you can't buy that ! I hope we do go out and buy a couple of gems, rather than some overpriced 'deadwood'. But its obviously not easy, and hindsight is a strange thing ! The great Kieth Burkinshaw used to emthasise that the team had to match the oppositions work ethic and desire for the talent to prevail. Thats still correct today and i'm pretty sure Poch will be drumming that into tha guys tonight. Coys

 

We,ve been closer to poor than good in most of our performance,s this season i think its fair to say . Came out the right side in plenty of games we didn't play well in , or were awfull in some of them. Since start of Nov , Villa, Hull, Palace, Swansea, Burnley twice, Leicester and the Mancs are all games we either won or drew but bar a bit of luck and some heroics from the keeper we could have come out the wrong side in nearly all of them and we couldn't have any complaints . Todays performance was prob on a par with some of theese , better than some to be fair but it just didn't go our way this time . You cant be expecting to come out the right side all the time in 50/50 games or in games your clearly second best in . It don't work like that unless your the luckiest team in the world and we,re not . We,ve had our fair share of luck this season in that reguard. Ultimately we lack quality in all areas. Where would we be without Kane , doesn't bear thinking about . The main reason we are where we are in the league is because the rest are also struggling . To be honest i think its the poorest I've seen the league in terms of quality for a long time .On our overall performances i don't think we deserve to be any higher then mid-table . Bar the top 2 the rest of the so called top 6 have forgotten how to defend . I've defiantly never seen that part of the game so bad by so many teams . Its truely shocking , embarrassing even . What's going on at training , coaches have a lot to answer for . lots of games coming up over next few weeks is going to be a big test for some of the lads , some look like there feeling it all ready after the hectic x-mass schedule . Rotation is needed and while there's a lot of average players in the first 11 the alternatives look poor or for what ever reasons they just don't seem to work for us . Says a lot considering the money spent and the size of the squad . All in all the next month or so is going to tell us and Mr Poch a lot about this team and squad . Might sound all pessimistic but for me thats the reality of it at the moment .

 

Spot on Burnt about the luck factor. Without Kane and the extraordinary moments of luck we've had this season, we would definitely be mid table at best.
I believe we are close to being a genuine top 4 side, but not yet. The only way we can do that is to build on a potentially good side by investing wisely in a few hard working players and SELL SELL SELL our dead wood; Ady, Kaboul, Townsend, Lennon, Capoue.
Rose HAS to be second choice to Davies. Fazio has to play only very short passes so that he stops giving the ball away.

 

I do agree about the standard of the league. The standard has been dropping in the last few years and it is no longer the best league in the world. Not even close.
Some of our performances have been poor but we are at least picking up points apart from today. We now have a cup replay and two very winnable games at home to come.
Pochettino needs to ask for funds but we all know we need to sell before we can buy and there are plenty we can move on. Andross , poorlinho, sold a dud o, kaboom, crapoo, dumb belly, ade bye yawn.... Need I go on?

 

No doubt there's plenty to get rid of and thats going to be as tough as trying to get the right players in . Will have to take some big hits on some of them , im sure that wont sit too well with Mr Levy . He,ll prob be trying to make a profit . Could be a long drawn out saga .

 

Currently we have 2 or 3 great players, Lloris, Kane and possible Eriksen, if any of them don't fire in the day we look very ordinary. How many times has Loris saved us? ( no pun intended) I fully agree about our defense, and that's been a problem for a few seasons. However in the past a few seasons ago we could score goals and that made up for our leaky defense.....

 

I don't know what to make of Spurs this year - we've had more luck in the first half of the season than in the previous ten years combined, but I don't feel confident about our ability to win convincingly (and deservedly) against anyone - even Sheffield United. As for Pochettino, he's a complete enigma - genius or clown? Most of our football so far under him has been little better than AVB's turgid fare, but the good performances against Everton and Chelsea have encouraged the belief that things are finally coming together, only for us to revert to type, losing to teams that any side with Top Four aspirations should be seeing off with ease. Perhaps the best we can hope for is to copy Liverpool under Houllier, winning minor trophies undeservedly (as if!), because real consistency seems totally beyond us, whoever's the manager - sorry, head coach.